Engagement Interface Advertising In A Social Network

ABSTRACT

A social network advertises to its members with engagement interfaces. An engagement interface comprises a call to action and a link to perform the action within the social network from within the engagement interface. Responsive to a user selection of the link to perform the action, the engagement interface modifies one or more objects within the social network associated with the call to action according to the selection of the link to perform the action. The engagement interface may be refreshed on the user&#39;s screen to indicate to the user that the action has been performed. An engagement interface may also be presented to a user from the social network or from an external system apart from the social network.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/390,362, filed on Feb. 20, 2009, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to social networking and, in particular, toadvertising to users of a social network.

BACKGROUND

Social networks, or social utilities that track and enable connectionsbetween members (including people, businesses, and other entities), havebecome prevalent in recent years. In particular, social networkingwebsites allow members to communicate more efficiently information thatis relevant to their friends or other connections in the social network.Social networking websites typically incorporate a system for connectingmembers to content that is likely to be relevant to each member. Forexample, members may be grouped according to one or more commonattributes in their profiles, such as geographic location, employer, jobtype, age, music preferences, interests, or other attributes. Members ofthe social networking website or external parties can then use thesegroups to customize or target information delivery so that informationthat might be of particular interest to a group can be communicated tothat group.

Advertisers have attempted to leverage this information about members,targeting their ads to members whose interests best align with the ads.For example, a social networking website may display banner ads for aconcert to members who include an affinity for the performing band intheir website profile and live near a concert venue where that bandmight be performing. However, these attempts are no different thantargeting of ads that exist in many other contexts. Traditional methodsof online advertising, such as banner ads that provide a link to anexternal website, disrupt the user experience of a social networkingwebsite. As a result, banner ads remain an ineffective method oftargeting users. Advertisers have not yet been able to engage users ofsocial networking websites in a meaningful way to present theiradvertising message to consumers.

SUMMARY

To present advertising that is more effective than traditional targetedonline advertising, advertisers use a type of advertisement that allowsa member of a social network to interact with the advertisement. In oneembodiment, the advertisement includes an “engagement interface” thatcomprises a call to action and a link to perform the action within thesocial network. Embodiments of the invention allow advertisers to engagemembers of a social network by allowing them to take actions that modifyobjects within the social network. A member intuitively interacts withthe engagement interface of the advertisement because the call to actionemulates the actions are regularly performed within the social networkby users outside of the context of an advertisement.

In one embodiment of a method for advertising with an engagementinterface to members of a social network, a social network receives aplurality of engagement interfaces to be presented to members of asocial network, where each engagement interface comprising a call toaction and a link to perform the action within the social network fromwithin the engagement interface. Then, responsive to a request for a webpage from a member of the social network via a member device, the socialnetwork selects an engagement interface to present to the member andsends a webpage comprising the selected engagement interface to themember device. The engagement interface is operable to modify at leastone object within the social network in response to a user selection ofits call to action. If the user selects the call to action, the socialnetwork modifies one or more objects in the social network that areassociated with the engagement interface according to the particularuser selection of the link.

The features and advantages described in this summary and the followingdetailed description are not all-inclusive. Many additional features andadvantages will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in viewof the drawings, specification, and claims hereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a high-level block diagram illustrating the creation ofengagement interfaces and the interactions between the member and theengagement interface and between engagement interfaces and objectswithin a social network, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a network diagram of a system for providing engagementinterfaces to members of a social networking website, showing a blockdiagram of the social networking website, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is an interaction diagram of a process for modifying objectswithin a social network from within an engagement interface, inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 4A-D are examples of engagement interfaces requesting a member toperform various actions on objects within a social network, inaccordance with embodiments of the invention.

FIGS. 5A-C illustrate phases of an engagement interface, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 6A-D are more examples of engagement interfaces requesting amember to perform other various actions on objects within a socialnetwork, in accordance with embodiments of the invention.

FIGS. 7A-D are more examples of engagement interfaces requesting amember to perform other various actions on objects within a socialnetwork, in accordance with embodiments of the invention.

FIGS. 8A-D are more examples of engagement interfaces requesting amember to perform other various actions on objects within a socialnetwork, in accordance with embodiments of the invention.

FIGS. 9A-D are more examples of engagement interfaces requesting amember to perform other various actions on objects within a socialnetwork, in accordance with embodiments of the invention.

FIGS. 10A-B illustrate phases of an engagement interface, including apop-up window shown responsive to a selection of the link to perform theaction, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 11A-B is another example of an engagement interface, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 11C-D is an example of a social ad comprising an engagementinterface displayed as a newsfeed story indicating how many friends havereceived a gift sponsored by an advertiser, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention.

The figures depict various embodiments of the present invention forpurposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readilyrecognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments ofthe structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed withoutdeparting from the principles of the invention described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Engagement Interface Advertising to Members of aSocial Network

A social networking website offers its members the ability tocommunicate and interact with other members of the website. In use,members join the social networking website and then add connections to anumber of other members to whom they desire to be connected. As usedherein, the term “friend” refers to any other member to whom a memberhas formed a connection, association, or relationship via the website.Connections may be added explicitly by a member, for example, the memberselecting a particular other member to be a friend, or automaticallycreated by the social networking site based on common characteristics ofthe members (e.g., members who are alumni of the same educationalinstitution). Connections in social networking websites are usually inboth directions, but need not be, so the terms “member” and “friend”depend on the frame of reference. For example, if Bob and Joe are bothmembers and connected to each other in the website, Bob and Joe, bothmembers, are also each other's friends. The connection between membersmay be a direct connection; however, some embodiments of a socialnetworking website allow the connection to be indirect via one or morelevels of connections. Also, the term friend need not require thatmembers actually be friends in real life, (which would generally be thecase when one of the members is a business or other entity); it simplyimplies a connection in the social network.

In addition to interactions with other members, the social networkingwebsite provides members with the ability to take actions on varioustypes of items supported by the website. These items may include groupsor networks (where “networks” here refer not to physical communicationnetworks, but rather social networks of people) to which members of thewebsite may belong, events or calendar entries in which a member mightbe interested, computer-based applications that a member may use via thewebsite, and transactions that allow members to buy or sell items viathe website. These are just a few examples of the items upon which amember may act on a social networking website, and many others arepossible.

Engagement interfaces take advantage of the numerous actions that can beperformed within a social network, allowing advertisers to maximizebrand impressions while engaging members without disrupting the socialnetworking experience. This mode of advertising is more effective thantraditional banner ads because members are more likely to pay attentionto an advertisement that mimics the social networking experience. Forexample, a social network may allow a member to comment on a newsfeedstory that was posted by one of his friends. The comment would modifythe newsfeed story object so that friends of the member would be able tosee the member's comment. An engagement interface mimics thisfunctionality by allowing the member to comment on the engagementinterface itself. Instead of taking the member away from the socialnetworking website, like traditional banner ads, members perform actionswithin the social network when engaging with engagement interfaces.Additionally, the comment would modify the engagement interface so thatfriends would be able to see the member's comment. Thus, advertisers canmaximize the benefit of a member's expected experience with the socialnetworking website beyond simple targeting of ads that merely chaseproduct demand.

FIG. 1 illustrates a process of presenting engagement interfaces tousers of a social networking website 100. A typical advertisementgeneration process in the state of the art uses well-known techniques ofapplying targeting criteria in online advertising to select a member ofa social network to present an engagement interface. An ad server 125triggers an engagement interface generation algorithm 105 to retrieveengagement interface content from an engagement interface content store110 to generate an engagement interface 120. The engagement interfacesmay include, for example, a multimedia preview trailer of an upcomingmovie, a comment field to comment on the preview trailer, and/or arequest to add an event sponsored by an advertiser to the member'scalendar. Engagement interfaces 120 may be created by advertisersindependently or by an application within the social network.

FIG. 1 further illustrates a process in which a member of a socialnetworking website 100 interacts with an engagement interface. An adserver 125 uses an engagement interface generation algorithm 105 togenerate engagement interfaces 120 targeted to members as specified inthe ad request. Each generated engagement interface 120 comprises a callto action and a link to perform the action within the social network.Responsive to a selection of the link, the engagement interface 120 maymodify a number of objects in a social networking website 100 associatedwith the call to action, including member profile objects 135, groupobjects 140, event objects 145, application objects 150, and transactionobjects 155. After the object(s) within the social network have beenmodified, the engagement interface 120 is refreshed to indicate that theaction was successful.

As FIG. 1 shows, the action taken by the member may be logged in anaction log 160. By recording these actions in the action log 160, theactions may be transformed by a newsfeed generation algorithm 165, asocial ad generation algorithm 170, a mini feed generation algorithm175, and other algorithms that compile the actions of members in thesocial network. In this way, an engagement interface may be distributedorganically to the members of the social network through the friends ofthe member who performed the action within the engagement interface 120.The “social” aspects of advertising within a social network aredescribed further in a related application, “Communicating Informationin a Social Networking Website About Activities from Another Domain,”Ser. No. 12/193,705, hereby incorporated by reference.

Engagement interfaces may be created by advertisers using an applicationwithin the social network and then stored in local storage. Advertisersmay select which actions a member may perform from within the engagementinterface using the application. After selecting the performableactions, the engagement interface is associated with the appropriateobjects within the social network in order for the selection of the linkto perform the action within the engagement interface to modify thecorrect object.

In an alternative process, the ad server 125 may create a number ofengagement interfaces in a batch process and then store the engagementinterfaces in a local storage 110. This way, a set of engagementinterfaces is ready to be provided for each member without having to becreated in real time. This helps with the scalability of the socialnetworking website 100, as real-time creation of engagement interfacesmay be difficult for networks 100 with a large number of members and aresulting large number of requests for ads with engagement interfaces.

In addition, FIG. 1 reveals the interaction between a member and anengagement interface as well as the potential interactions betweenengagement interfaces and objects within a social network.

Actions in the Social Network

As illustrated, the social networking website 100 maintains a number ofobjects for the different kinds of items with which a member mayinteract on the website 100. In one example embodiment, these objectsinclude member profile objects 135, group objects 140, event objects145, application objects 150, and transaction objects 155 (respectively,hereinafter, profiles 135, groups 140, events 145, applications 150, andtransactions 155). In one embodiment, an object is stored by the website100 for each instance of its associated item. For example, a memberprofile 135 is stored for each member who joins the website 100, a group140 is stored for each group defined in the website 100, and so on. Thetypes of objects and the data stored for each is described in moredetail below in connection with FIG. 2, which illustrates an embodimentof the social networking website 100.

A member of the social networking website 100 may take specific actionswithin the social networking website 100, where each action isassociated with one or more objects. The type of actions that a membermay perform in connection with an object is defined for each object andlargely depends on the type of item represented by the object. Aparticular action may be associated with multiple objects. Describedbelow are a number of examples of particular types of objects that maybe defined for the social networking website 100, as well as a number ofactions that can be taken for each object. These objects and the actionsdiscussed herein are provided for illustration purposes only, and it canbe appreciated that an unlimited number of variations and features canbe provided on a social networking website 100.

The social networking website 100 maintains a member profile 135 foreach member of the website 100. Any action that a particular membertakes with respect to another member is associated with each member'sprofile 135. Such actions may include, for example, adding a connectionto the other member, sending a message to the other member, reading amessage from the other member, viewing content associated with the othermember, attending an event posted by another member, among others. Inaddition, a number of actions described below in connection with otherobjects are directed at particular members, so these actions areassociated with those members as well.

A group 140 may be defined for a group or network of members. Forexample, a member may define a group to be a fan club for a particularband. The website 100 would maintain a group 140 for that fan club,which might include information about the band, media content (e.g.,songs or music videos) by the band, and discussion boards on whichmembers of the group can comment about the band. Accordingly, memberactions that are possible with respect to a group 140 might includejoining the group, viewing the content, listening to songs, watchingvideos, and posting a message on the discussion board.

Similarly, an event 145 may be defined for a particular event, such as abirthday party. A member may create the event 145 by defininginformation about the event such as the time and place and a list ofinvitees. Other members may accept the invitation, comment about theevent, post their own content (e.g., pictures from the event, audioand/or video from the event), and perform any other actions enabled bythe social networking website 100 for the event 145. Accordingly, thecreator of the event 145 as well as the invitees for the event mayperform various actions that are associated with that 145.

The social networking website may also enable members to addapplications to their profiles. These applications provide enhancedcontent and interactivity within the social networking website 100,which maintains an application object 150 for each application hosted inthe system. The applications may be provided by the website operatorand/or by third party developers. An example application is an enhancedmessaging service, in which members can send virtual objects (such as a“gift” or “flowers”) and an optional message to another member. The useof any functionality offered by the application may thus constitute anaction by the member in connection with the application 150. Inaddition, continuing the example from above, the receipt of the virtualgift or message may also be considered an action in connection with theapplication 150. It can therefore be appreciated that actions may bepassive and need not require active participation by a member.

Another type of object shown in the example of FIG. 1 is a transactionobject 155. A transaction object enables members to make transactions,such as buying, selling, renting, trading, or exchanging with othermembers. For example, a member may post a classified ad on the socialnetworking website 100 to sell a car. The member would thus define a newtransaction 155, which may include a description of the car, a picture,and an asking price. Other members can then view this information andpossibly interact further with the transaction 155 by posting questionsabout the car and accepting the offer or making a counteroffer. Each ofthese interactions—view, question posting, offer, and counteroffer—areactions that are associated with the particular transaction 155.

When a member takes an action on the social networking website 100, theaction is recorded in an action log 160. In one embodiment, the website100 maintains the action log 160 as a database of entries. When anaction is taken on the website 100, therefore, the website 100 adds anentry for that action to the log 160.

After an amount of time, the action log 160 will become populated with anumber of entries that describe actions taken by the members of thesocial networking website 100. The action log 160 thus contains a veryrich set of data about the actions of the members, and can be analyzedand filtered to identify trends and relationships in the actions of themembers, as well as affinities between the members and various objects.Advertisers may target members with engagement interfaces using thesetrends, relationships, and affinities, while also recording new actionsbased on a selection of the link within the engagement interface. Thus,engagement interfaces enable a member to experience multiple aspects ofthe social networking website from within the engagement interface.

System Architecture

FIG. 2 is a high level block diagram illustrating a system architecturesuitable for operation of a social networking website 100. The systemenvironment comprises one or more member devices 205, one or moreexternal websites 200, a social networking website 100, and a network210. In alternative configurations, different and/or additional modulescan be included in the system.

The member devices 205 comprise one or more computing devices that canreceive member input and can transmit and receive data via the network210. For example, the member devices 205 may be desktop computers,laptop computers, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), orany other device including computing functionality and datacommunication capabilities. The member devices 205 are configured tocommunicate via network 210, which may comprise any combination of localarea and/or wide area networks, using both wired and wirelesscommunication systems. A member device 205 is presented with anengagement interface 120 on the social networking website 100.Additionally, an engagement interface 120 on the social networkingwebsite 100 may provide a link to an external website 200 in addition tothe call to action and the link to perform the action within the socialnetwork.

FIG. 2 further illustrates a block diagram of a social networkingwebsite 100. The social networking website 100 includes a web server130, an action logger 250, an action log 160, a mini feed generator 270,a newsfeed generator 260, an ad server 125, an engagement interfacegenerator 255, a social ad generator 265, a member profile store 215, agroup store 220, an event store 225, a database of ad requests 105, anapplication data store 230, a transaction store 235, a content store240, and an engagement interface content store 110. In otherembodiments, the social networking website 100 may include additional,fewer, or different modules for various applications. Conventionalcomponents such as network interfaces, security mechanisms, loadbalancers, failover servers, management and network operations consoles,and the like are not shown so as to not obscure the details of thesystem.

The social networking website 100 comprises a computing system thatallows members to communicate or otherwise interact with each other andaccess content as described herein. The social networking website 100stores member profiles that describe the members of a social network,including biographic, demographic, and other types of descriptiveinformation, such as work experience, educational history, hobbies orpreferences, location, and the like. The website 100 further stores datadescribing one or more relationships between different members. Therelationship information may indicate members who have similar or commonwork experience, group memberships, hobbies, or educational history.Additionally, the social networking website 100 includes member-definedrelationships between different members, allowing members to specifytheir relationships with other members. For example, these memberdefined relationships allows members to generate relationships withother members that parallel the members' real-life relationships, suchas friends, co-workers, partners, and so forth. Members may select frompredefined types of relationships, or define their own relationshiptypes as needed.

The web server 130 links the social networking website 100 via thenetwork 210 to one or more member devices 205, as well as to one or moreexternal websites 200. The web server 130 may include a mail server orother messaging functionality for receiving and routing messages betweenthe social networking website 100 and the member devices 205 or externalwebsites 200. The messages can be instant messages, queued messages(e.g., email), text and SMS messages, or any other suitable messagingtechnique.

The action logger 250 is capable of receiving communications from theweb server 130 about member actions on and/or off the social networkingwebsite 100. The action logger 250 populates the action log 160 withinformation about these member actions tracked in the log 160.

The newsfeed generator 260 and the mini feed generator 270 generatecommunications for each member about information that may be relevant tothe member. These communications may take the form of stories, and eachstory is an informational message comprising one or a few lines ofinformation about an action in the action log that is relevant to theparticular member. The stories are presented to a member via one or morepages of the social networking website 100, for example in each member'shome page or newsfeed page.

The ad server 125 performs the engagement interface generation algorithm105 discussion above. The operation of the ad server 125 is described inmore detail below in connection with FIG. 3. The ad server 125 iscommunicatively coupled to the database of ad requests 105 and to theweb server 130 for this purpose.

As discussed above, the social networking website 100 maintains dataabout a number of different types of objects with which a member mayinteract on the website 100. To this end, each of the member profilestore 215, the group store 220, the event store 225, the applicationdata store 230, and the transaction store 235 stores a data structure tomanage the data for each instance of the corresponding type of objectmaintained by the website 100. The data structures comprise informationfields that are suitable for the corresponding type of object. (Forexample, the event store 225 contains data structures that include thetime and location for an event, whereas the member profile store 215contains data structures with fields suitable for describing a member'sprofile.) When a new object of a particular type is created, the website100 initializes a new data structure of the corresponding type, assignsa unique object identifier to it, and begins to add data to the objectas needed. This might occur, for example, when an advertiser defines anew event associated with a call to action in an engagement interface,wherein the website 100 would generate a new instance of an event in theevent store 225, assign a unique identifier to the event, and begin topopulate the fields of the event with information provided by theadvertiser and, subsequently as the engagement interface is implemented,by members.

Presentation of an Engagement Interface to a User

FIG. 3 illustrates a process showing how the social network may presentan engagement interface to a user and how the user may interact with theengagement interface. In a first step, an ad server 125 generates 300 anengagement interface 120 for members, as illustrated above in FIG. 1.Either before or after a member requests 305 a web page from a memberdevice, the ad server 125 provides 310 the engagement interface 120 to aweb server 130. The web server 130 then sends 315 the requested web pagewith the engagement interface 120 to a member device 205. The member isthus presented with a call to action and a link to perform the action,which are both contained in the engagement interface 120. Thisengagement interface advertisement may be paid for by an advertiser andmay include additional information about that advertiser, its products,and/or its services.

After the member is presented with the engagement interface 120, themember device 205 may be used to perform 320 an action within theengagement interface 120 wherein the member makes a selection of thelink to perform the action. Engagement interfaces 120 are paid for byadvertisers to encourage members to interact with the advertisers'message and brand by eliciting actions within the engagement interface.Various types of actions may be performed within the engagementinterface 120 on the objects discussed above depending on the call toaction provided in the engagement interface 120. The performed actionmay be recorded 325 by the web server 130 in an action log 160 to enablemember actions taken via the engagement interface 120 to spreadorganically to friends in the social network via algorithms that use theaction log. These algorithms may include, without limitation, thenewsfeed generation algorithm 165, the social ad generation algorithm170, and the mini feed algorithm 170, illustrated in FIG. 1 anddescribed above.

Next, the web server 130 modifies 330 an object or objects associatedwith the performed action in an object store 350. For example, if theengagement interface 120 requested the member to add a midnight movieshowing and the member performed the action, “Add to My Events,” amember profile object 135 associated with the member would be modified330 by the web server 130 responsive to the performed action within theengagement interface. The object store 350 manages the objects withinthe social network. In this example, the web server 130 may also modify330 an event object 145 that is associated with the midnight movieshowing, in accordance with the selection of the link to perform theaction, for example, to add the member to the list of attendees of themovie showing.

The object store 350 then confirms 335 the modification(s) to the webserver 130 to the objects the associated with the action. The web server130 may also modify 340 the engagement interface 120 to display anindication that the action was successfully performed on the objects inthe social network. Finally, the web server 130 refreshes 345 the webpage with the modified engagement interface 120 on the member device205. In this way, multiple objects in the social network are modified bythe selection of the link to perform the action with the engagementinterface.

Described in more detail below, FIG. 4A is an example of an engagementinterface presented on a web page to a member. In the engagementinterface depicted in the region 400, the engagement interface comprisesa call to action 405 that invites the member watch as contestants revealembarrassing secrets and a link 410 to express the desire to watch it.FIG. 4B shows the refreshed engagement interface 400, which includes anindication 420 that the action has been successfully performed. Theengagement interface, in this example, may modify multiple objects,including a wish list object and affinity for the content described,that are associated with the action performed.

Generally, advertisers may select any number of actions to be performedin the social network from within the engagement interface via links toperform the actions. The selection of the link to perform the actionmodifies the specific objects associated with the call to action inaccordance with the selection. Types of actions that may be performedfrom within the engagement interface include, but are not limited to,attending an event; becoming a fan of an entity in the social network;commenting on something, such as a picture or another user's action;giving currency, real or virtual; posting on a public wall; expressing adesire to do something; playing a game with a friend; playing audioand/or video in an engagement interface; rating a product described inan ad; answering a poll question; uploading a photo, video, or audiofile; expressing an affinity for an item of content; and joining acause. Each of these actions is described in more detail below.

An advertiser may create a page on the social network that describes aproduct or brand that the advertiser wishes to promote. In generatingthe engagement interface, the advertiser may ask the member to “become afan” of the page created for that specific product. The member wouldonly need to click once on the request to “become a fan” of theadvertised product. For example, in FIG. 4C, a television network maywant to advertise a television show by making a page for the televisionshow on the social network, where fans can receive updates and contentfrom the cast and crew. An engagement interface 425 for the televisionshow would include a call to action 430 for the member to “become a fan”of the television show and a link 440 to perform the action of becominga fan. As FIG. 4D illustrates, the selection of the link modifies theassociated objects and causes the engagement interface 425 for thetelevision show to refresh with an indication 445 that the action wassuccessful.

Advertisers may also include the ability for members to express theiraffinity or approval for an advertisement. In FIG. 5A, an engagementinterface 500 is shown that has a call to action 515, asking the user“Is this trailer awesome or what?” and has a link 505 to watch thepreview and another link 510 to allow the user to express an affinityfor the trailer. This feedback from the targeted member about theengagement interface helps advertisers develop a more targeted audiencebecause the advertiser receives data regarding the effectiveness of theadvertisement and whether the targeting criteria should be modified. Themember may select a link 510 that expresses the member's approval of theadvertisement. This action from within the engagement interface maymodify an application object that is associated with the engagementinterface, for example, by adding the user to a list of members who haveenjoyed the movie trailer. The action may also affect the member profileobject of the user by changing the affinities associated with that user.

An advertiser may also enable a member to watch a movie trailer, orother audio or video related to the content of the ad. The member'saction in response to the request records the member's affinity in anaction log. FIGS. 5B and 5C show how the engagement interface may expandwhen the member selects the link watch the movie trailer through theengagement interface, allowing the member to watch the trailer withouthaving to navigate away from the currently viewed web page. When themember selects the link for the movie trailer 505, a video pops up 520within the engagement interface 500, playing the movie trailer 535. Whenthe video pops up, the original link may change 530 to “Visit theFacebook Page,” which may link to a web page that allows the member topurchase tickets directly through the social networking website orthrough a third party website. The member may also select the link 510to express an affinity for the trailer, resulting in a change of thelink to an indication 540 that the action was successfully performed, asshown in FIG. 5C. In each of these actions, the member is engaged withthe engagement interface 500 because most actions occur within theengagement interface 500, or through a pop up on the same page of thesocial networking website, rather than a third party website. Thismaximizes the member's engagement with the engagement interface 500.

Advertisers may also choose to add their own audio and/or video to anengagement interface. Members of a social network are accustomed towatching videos on the social network, such that an engagement interfacewhich mimics this functionality adds, rather than detracts, from theoverall social networking experience. When an engagement interfaceincludes a video, a frame of the video is displayed on the engagementinterface and a play button on the video frame indicates that a video isavailable for playback, for example, as in FIGS. 5B and 5C. After themember clicks on the play button, the video frame expands to playbackthe video from within the engagement interface. The advertiser may wishto record the member's action by having the engagement interface modifyan object that is associated with the video, such as by updating theobject to indicate the number of times the video has been viewed and/orwhich members have viewed it.

Additionally, audio files can be added to an engagement interface, suchas a song by a music artist being promoted, so that a member may playthe audio through the engagement interface. FIGS. 6A and 6B show anengagement interface 600 with a call to action 610 to play a song 610and a link 615 to perform that action from within the engagementinterface 600. When the selection of the link 615 is received, the songis played within the engagement interface 600. The engagement interface600 may also be updated with a link 620 to indicate that the song hasbeen played at least once already.

An advertiser may also include the ability for member to rate a productdescribed in an engagement interface. For example, in FIGS. 6C and 6D,an advertiser for a song has included in the engagement interface 625 acall to action 635 to play the song and rate it as well as a link 640for the member to rate the song, e.g., by giving the song 1 to 5 stars.Of course, the rating methodology may vary depending on the advertiser'sdesign choice. Once the member rates the product described within theengagement interface 625, the rating link 645 of the engagementinterface 625 may be updated to reflect the member's rating. Theengagement interface 625 may also modify an application objectassociated with the engagement interface 625 to record the rating. Themember profile object may also be modified to indicate whether themember liked the product described in the engagement interface 625. Inthis way, the advertiser is able to receive focus group data about theproduct while also increasing the number of brand impressions by usingthe rating feature from within the engagement interface.

Additionally, the advertiser may enable the engagement interface tocompile other members' ratings of the product and then distribute the adto members of the social network who are likely to have a high affinityfor the ad's content. If, as an example, numerous friends of a memberhave rated the same song with four or five stars, that member may betargeted to receive that engagement interface.

Members of a social network frequently upload photos, videos and audiofiles to the social network to share with friends. Advertisers can mimicthis functionality by allowing members to upload photos, videos, andaudio files via an engagement interface. For example, in FIGS. 7A and7B, a car company may wish to advertise a new car 705 by requestingmembers to record a message 710 from the user about why the member lovesthe car. The ability to upload a media file 720 or record a message 715directly from the engagement interface 700 makes the advertisement morepersonal and makes it more likely that a message will be recorded, thusmaximizing the engagement of the member with the engagement interface700. The engagement interface 700 may modify the application object tostore the photo, video, or audio file uploaded by the member andprovides an indication 725 that the file has been received and uploaded.Once a message is uploaded, the engagement interface may be updated toindicate that fact and to preview the message via link 725, as shown inFIG. 7B.

In addition, an engagement interface may allow members to upload photosin a similar manner. FIGS. 7C and 7D depict an embodiment of such anengagement interface 735, in which the call to action 745 requests themember to add a picture related to the content of the advertisement. Theengagement interface 735 also provides a link 750 to perform the uploadaction. After the member uploads the file successfully, an indication755 is shown on the engagement interface.

An advertiser may include in the engagement interface a request for themember to add an event to the member's calendar, which is maintained bythe social network. This event may exist in the real world, or it may bea virtual event and/or exist only within the social network. The action815 associated with the engagement interface 800 would allow the memberto RSVP for the event, asking the member to indicate that the member isattending, not attending, or may attend. For example, movie producersmay wish to advertise a showing of a new movie in theaters on a specificdate. The engagement interface may thus comprise a call to action 805 toadd the movie showing to the member's calendar and a link 815 to performthe action. Once the member has added the event to the member'scalendar, the engagement interface 800 may be updated to provide anindication 820 that the event has been added to the member's calendar.

Advertisers may also post a poll question and answers in an engagementinterface. For example, as shown in FIGS. 8C and 8D, a televisionnetwork may advertise a television show and generate interest in theshow using an engagement interface 830 that asks members to answer aquestion about the show, as in the call to action 840. A drop down menu845 may provide the member a link to perform the action of answering thequestion. After the member responds to the poll by selecting a choice,the poll data may be retrieved in real time to display the results 850.The member's action within the engagement interface 830 of answering thequestions, for example, may modify the application object that isassociated with the poll created by the advertiser. The member's profileobject would also be modified to indicate the member's interest incontent associated with the selected answer. Also, a poll answer object,created by the application object associated with the poll, may bemodified to accumulate the responses from members across the socialnetwork.

Additionally, the polling data may also be grouped by the member'sfriends who also responded to the poll. In such a case, the engagementinterface 830 may display the poll data filtered through the member'sfriends' responses (e.g., “5 friends think that David Archuleta will winand 10 friends think that David Cook will win!”).

One of the basic actions on a social network is comment on something bya member of the social network. Members comment on newsfeed stories,photos, videos, and gifts, among other objects in the social network.One of the benefits of commenting is its social aspect. Once the memberhas been commented on something, friends of the member can view thatmember's comment and respond with their own comment as well. This typeof conversation is frequent on a social network. An advertiser mayinclude this functionality in an engagement interface to allow membersand their friends to comment on the content of the engagement interface900, as illustrated in FIGS. 9A and 9B. In this example, a comment field915 is displayed within the engagement interface 900 for a new videogame product. After a member enters text in the field 915, theengagement interface 900 is refreshed with an indication 920 that theaction was performed successfully, e.g., showing the comment, as shownin FIG. 9B.

This commenting functionality increases the engagement of the memberwith the engagement interface 900 because of the ability for the ad tohost a number of comments from the member and the member's friends.Thus, the social aspect of commenting enables the engagement interfaceto distribute organically through “word of mouth.” This is enhanced whenthe member's action of commenting on the subject matter of theengagement interface 900 is reported in other places in the socialnetwork, such as in the member's mini-feed or in the member's friends'newsfeed. Besides the social nature of commenting, the advertiser mayselect the best caption to display on the advertisement or somewhereelse of significance, such as an external website or a fan page for theproduct.

Generally, playing a game with a friend on a social network candramatically increase the amount of time the member spends with thesocial network. As a result, advertisers may include playing a game witha friend within an engagement interface to maximize engagement with theadvertisement, as shown in FIGS. 9C and 9D. An advertiser may create agame application on the social network so that the application object ismodified when the member starts playing the game with a friend. Theengagement interface 930 may comprise a call to action 935 for playingthe game and a link 945 to perform the action of playing the game onlinewith a friend who is also online now through the engagement interface.Alternatively, the advertiser may develop a game on a third partywebsite and upload the game as an application on the social network orlink to the game on the third party website. FIG. 9D illustrates anindication 950 that the action was successful, e.g., that the game hasbeen played and can be played again.

While actual physical currency may or may not exist on a social network,virtual currency may exist, such as in the form of gifts or units of“karma.” An advertiser may sponsor giving gifts from within anengagement interface that is related to the product or message that theadvertiser wishes to convey. For example, in FIGS. 10A and 10B, anadvertiser sponsors giving gifts from within an engagement interface1005, which comprises a call to action 1010 indicating that a limitednumber of gifts are available and a link 1015 to perform the action ofgiving a gift to a friend. The currency may be limited in nature (e.g.,the sponsor giving away a limited number of gifts), or it may beunlimited. As shown in FIG. 10B, the selection of the link 1015 causes amodification of the engagement interface 1005 or a new popup window 1025to display on the same web page. In this example, the new interfacecomprises a video commercial 1030, a destination field 1040, a messagecontent field 1045, a send button 1050, and a cancel button 1055. Usingthis interface, a member can send a gift along with a short message tothe member's friends in the social network. This functionality of givinggifts increases the engagement of the member by creating scarcity in anitem and sponsoring the gifting of the item to a friend, therebyincreasing the number of brand impressions at least twofold. The popupwindow 1025 operates as another type of engagement interface because themember must click on the send button 1050 to modify the objectsassociated with the call to action 1035.

Giving units of virtual currency may work in a similar fashion, exceptthe virtual currency may be a type of currency unrelated to a specificproduct and may exist only on the social network. In FIGS. 11A and 11B,an engagement interface 1105 is shown where the advertiser sponsors 1115sending virtual currency to friends as a call to action 1110. Theadvertiser may pay the social network in exchange for allowing membersto give the virtual currency. After entering a friend's name in the textfield 1120, the engagement interface 1105 refreshes to show anindication 1125 that the action has been successfully performed.

The member's action would modify the gift object to reduce the number insupply (if applicable) and modify the members' profile objects toindicate that the gift was given and received. Along with givinggifts/karma, an advertiser may include the functionality to post a gifton a public wall. The functionality of posting a gift to a member's wallincreases the number of brand impressions because friends and othermembers of the social network would view that gift on the member's wall.The gift would appear on the friend's wall upon receipt, postedpublicly. The engagement interface thus modifies the profile object ofboth the friend and the member sending the gift.

In FIGS. 11C and 11D, an advertisement 1145 displays an engagementinterface 1160 that shows an image of a gift, which may relate to aproduct being advertised. This example advertisement 1145 communicatesto the member that one of the member's friends, John McKeeman 1140,received a gift from a friend, Taylor McCauley 1145. The newsfeed story1130 comprises an engagement interface 1160 that includes a call toaction 1150 in the form of a comment and a link 1155 to perform theaction of giving a gift. FIG. 11D shows the indication 1165 that thegift has been given.

Advertisers can also enable members to join a cause in which theadvertiser supports by requesting the member to perform some actionwithin the engagement interface that triggers a donation to a causedescribed in the engagement interface. For example, the profits from aparticular product line of a company may be donated to a charity orother nonprofit organization. An engagement interface may enable amember to donate to the nonprofit organization and receive a giftrelated to that organization or donation. The member's action to donatemay trigger a popup window within the engagement interface or within thepage where the engagement interface is posted. The donation modifies thepage object that tracks the amount of money raised and number of membersdonating to the cause. In addition, a member may join a cause directlyfrom the engagement interface, regardless of whether an actual donationis given. The cause would also modify the member's profile object toindicate membership in the cause. This method of advertising isbeneficial because the member is able to post the cause his or herprofile, thereby increasing the brand impressions of the sponsor.

Engagement Interface Advertising Through Social Connections within aSocial Network

“Interactive social ads,” or engagement interfaces that utilize socialaspects of the social network, allow advertisers to leverage onemember's actions to promote specific content to others who might beinterested in that information—not only because they might have similarinterests, but also because of their connection with the member. Thismode of advertising may be more effective because members are morelikely to be influenced to respond to an advertiser's message in thepresence of information that their friends or other connections havealso taken an action related to the advertiser. Interactive social adsthus allow advertisers to enjoy the credibility that consumers naturallygive to their friends through word of mouth advertising.

In one embodiment, a process for generating engagement interfaces isused for a social networking website 100 that also publishes informationto its members about the actions of other members to whom the membersare connected, in this case, friends. This information published tomembers about their friends outside the context of the engagementinterfaces is provided in the form of short newsfeed stories(information messages) about the members' friends. The newsfeed storiesare displayed to a member on a member's home page, for example. For eachmember, the website 100 is configured to generate a personalized set ofnewsfeed stories and engagement interfaces that are likely to berelevant to the member. Although described in the newsfeed context, inother embodiments the engagement interfaces may be generated by thewebsite 100 and published to members in a website 100 that does not usenewsfeed stories or publishes the engagement interfaces outside thecontext of newsfeed stories, such as in banner ads or in highly visibleareas of the member's home screen.

At some point in its operation, the social networking website 100obtains an interactive social ad to display on the website. FIG. 1illustrates a process in which an interactive social ad is generated forone of the friends of the member using the engagement interfacegeneration process described above. To generate an interactive social adfor one of the member's friends, the website 100 accesses the action log160 and a database of ad requests 115. The database of ad requests 115include a number of requests that define criteria for creating aninteractive social ad. Using the ad requests 115 and the action log 160,the website 100 applies a social ad generation algorithm 170 to createone or more interactive social ads tailored for the particular friend.Each generated interactive social ad comprises an advertising messagethat communicates a message about at least one member action from theaction log 160 and that requests at least one action from the member'sfriends.

In one embodiment, the interactive social ad communicates a messageabout the actions of some number of friends of the member. For example,a member may receive a message like: “Three of your friends have added‘Dark Knight: Midnight Showing’ to their calendars.” The advertisingmessage may also include additional content from the advertiser. Theadvertising message is communicated to the friend, for example as amessage on the friend's home page, in an email message, in a list ornewsfeed of other advertising messages and stories describing variousactions taken, or any other electronic communication medium. FIGS. 11C-Dillustrate another example of an interactive social ad, where theadvertising message 1135 indicates that “12 of your friends receivedgifts.” The social ad generation algorithm 170 is described in moredetail in U.S. application Ser. No. 12/193,702, “Social Advertisementsand Other Informational Messages, and Advertising Model for Same,” filedAug. 18, 2008, incorporated by reference herein.

Syndication of Engagement Interface Advertising Outside the SocialNetwork

Embodiments of the engagement interfaces described above are presentedto a member of a social network by a web page of the social network.However, engagement interfaces may also be presented on externalsystems, such as third party websites and enterprise systems. Forexample, while using or accessing an external system in communicationwith the social network, a member of the social network may be presentedwith the same or a similar engagement interface as described above inconnection with engagement interfaces presented on the social network.Engagement interfaces are thus “syndicated” outside of the socialnetwork by one or more external systems.

Syndication of engagement interfaces on external systems may comprises asocial network communicating the engagement interfaces to one or moreexternal systems, which then present the engagement interface to amember of the social network. The communications between the socialnetwork and an external interface may be implemented in various ways,and one technique of implementing communication between a social networkand an external system is described in U.S. application Ser. No.12/324,761, titled “Leveraging a Social Graph from a Social Network forSocial Context in Other Systems,” filed Nov. 26, 2008, incorporated byreference herein. External systems may use these techniques to accessinformation about members of the social network and their connections,and then to present engagement interfaces outside the social network. Inthis way, advertisers may communicate with members of the social networkwhile they are on the external system. Syndication of engagementinterfaces also enables members of a social network to modify objectswithin a social network even when browsing a website or otherwiseaccessing the external system outside of the social network.

In one embodiment, an external system may syndicate an engagementinterface by first determining whether a user communicating with theexternal system is a member of the social network. If the user is amember of the social network, the external system may receive anengagement interface from the social network and presenting theengagement interface to the member of the social network.

As described above, the engagement interface may comprise a call toaction and a link to perform the action within the social network. Fromthe external system, a member may respond to the call to action byselecting the link to perform the action within the social network viathe engagement interface. Because the external system and the socialnetwork communicate with each other, the engagement interface,responsive to a selection of the link, modifies objects in the socialnetwork associated with the call to action, as described above. Afterthe objects within the social network are modified, the engagementinterface is refreshed on the external system to indicate that theaction was successful.

In this way, the member may engage with and perform actions within thesocial network even while using an external system outside the socialnetwork. This increases member engagement within the social network byproviding more opportunities to interact with the social network.

SUMMARY

The foregoing description of the embodiments of the invention has beenpresented for the purpose of illustration; it is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed.Persons skilled in the relevant art can appreciate that manymodifications and variations are possible in light of the abovedisclosure. For example, although the foregoing embodiments have beendescribed in the context of a social network website, it will apparentto one of ordinary skill in the art that the invention may be used withany electronic social network service and, even if it is not providedthrough a website. Any computer-based system that provides socialnetworking functionality can be used in accordance with the presentinvention even if it relies, for example, on e-mail, instant messagingor other form of peer-to-peer communications, and any other techniquefor communicating between users. The invention is thus not limited toany particular type of communication system, network, protocol, formator application.

Some portions of this description describe the embodiments of theinvention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations ofoperations on information. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are commonly used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to convey the substance of their work effectively toothers skilled in the art. These operations, while describedfunctionally, computationally, or logically, are understood to beimplemented by computer programs or equivalent electrical circuits,microcode, or the like. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient attimes, to refer to these arrangements of operations as modules, withoutloss of generality. The described operations and their associatedmodules may be embodied in software, firmware, hardware, or anycombinations thereof.

Any of the steps, operations, or processes described herein may beperformed or implemented with one or more hardware or software modules,alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, asoftware module is implemented with a computer program productcomprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code,which can be executed by a computer processor for performing any or allof the steps, operations, or processes described.

Embodiments of the invention may also relate to an apparatus forperforming the operations herein. This apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, and/or it may comprise ageneral-purpose computing device selectively activated or reconfiguredby a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer programmay be stored in a tangible computer readable storage medium or any typeof media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and coupled to acomputer system bus. Furthermore, any computing systems referred to inthe specification may include a single processor or may be architecturesemploying multiple processor designs for increased computing capability.

Embodiments of the invention may also relate to a computer data signalembodied in a carrier wave, where the computer data signal includes anyembodiment of a computer program product or other data combinationdescribed herein. The computer data signal is a product that ispresented in a tangible medium or carrier wave and modulated orotherwise encoded in the carrier wave, which is tangible, andtransmitted according to any suitable transmission method.

Finally, the language used in the specification has been principallyselected for readability and instructional purposes, and it may not havebeen selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter.It is therefore intended that the scope of the invention be limited notby this detailed description, but rather by any claims that issue on anapplication based hereon. Accordingly, the disclosure of the embodimentsof the invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, ofthe scope of the invention, which is set forth in the following claims.

1. A computer-implemented method for comprising: storing, at a server ofa social networking system, a plurality of engagement interfacestargeting a plurality of users of the social networking system, eachengagement interface comprising a user interface control in theengagement interface to perform an action in the social networkingsystem; responsive to a request for a content from a user of the socialnetworking system, selecting an engagement interface from the pluralityof engagement interfaces for the user; sending the requested contentcomprising the engagement interface from the server for presentation tothe user; receiving, at the server, a request by a user to perform theaction in the social networking system from within the engagementinterface; performing the action in the social networking systemaccording of the user request from within the engagement interface; andcommunicating a newsfeed story comprising information related to theaction and to the user to an additional user of the social networkingsystem connected to the user.